In a press conference held Thursday the President made an about face on his N.S.A. spying program stating that the United States will stop collecting and storing telephone metadata.

Although a step in the right direction, Obama continued to support the intelligence community, stating that the U.S. intelligence agencies did not break the law while collecting the private information of American citizens.

This news comes as more reports continue to surface of several more N.S.A. related spying programs including the news that the N.S.A. has been monitoring 200 million personal text messages per day.

According to President Obama, “In an extraordinarily difficult job, one in which actions are second-guessed, success is unreported, and failure can be catastrophic, the men and women of the intelligence community, including the NSA, consistently follow protocols designed to protect the privacy of ordinary people,” Obama said. “They are not abusing authorities in order to listen to your private phone calls, or read your emails.”

This type of response demonstrates a strategic move by Obama to recognize the mounting pressure. His ability to accept responsibility is a move that is surely going to calm some of his most outspoken critics however, it is far from a full and complete change in intelligence gathering.

Until, or when, the USA Freedom ACT is passed we cannot rest. The N.S.A. still has control over our privacy and until this bill is passed we are likely to continue to see the Obama Administration continue to support its programs.

This just in from the Edward Snowden vault of government secrets: The National Security Agency is breaking into "potentially millions of computers worldwide" and infecting them with malware "implants" as part of an effort that is increasingly relying on automated systems and not human oversight, according to a by First Look Media report published…Read More